Skip to main content
All Sooners

Oklahoma Coaches Offers Support, Sympathy After Shooting at Virginia

Brent Venables previously coached alongside UVa's Tony Elliott when the two were at Clemson; Ted Roof and Jeff Lebby both expressed their sadness.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma Coaches Offers Support, Sympathy After Shooting at Virginia
Oklahoma Coaches Offers Support, Sympathy After Shooting at Virginia

In this story:

Oklahoma Sooners

NORMAN — The Oklahoma coaching staff offered their support and condolences to those affected by Sunday’s shooting of three University of Virginia football players.

First-year coach Brent Venables coached previously with Cavaliers coach Tony Elliott at Clemson when they were coordinators under Dabo Swinney.

“On behalf of the University of Oklahoma football Family,” Venables said via Twitter, “I send Prayers, love, & Support to Coach Elliott and the entire Virginia football family and University community. We are devastated and heartbroken for the families and everyone affected by this unimaginable tragedy.”

Add us as a preferred source on Google

OU coordinators Ted Roof and Jeff Lebby each began his weekly news conference on Monday with an opening statement off support.

“I’d like to first start off with expressing condolences for the University of Virginia, their football program, the people associated with that, and especially the fans, the families of those people that those men that we lost yesterday,” Roof said. “My heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to them and it's just a terrible tragedy, and certainly just sad, awful, awful things.”

“We’re all just wanting to express our sympathy for UVA football, their football family,” said Lebby. “With everything that has gone on and transpired up there, cannot imagine being in the building today going through what they’re going through.”

Three UVa players — Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry — were killed on Sunday night in a shooting, and two other students were injured and hospitalized. The suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., is in custody.

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

Share on XFollow johnehoover
Home/Football